in brief CSIRO today confirmed it had initiated patent infringement lawsuits in the US District Court against carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon over its much sought-after Wi-Fi patent.

Since 1993, CSIRO has held the patent for the technology which is used to allow devices to communicate over a wireless local area network (WLAN) by means of radio transmission, commonly known as Wi-Fi. The use of Wi-Fi in laptops, smartphones and other devices around the world has grown exponentially since, and CSIRO allege this has led to a number of companies infringing on its patent by using Wi-Fi technology in these devices.

The legal foray against the US carriers, first reported in the The Australian, has only been the most recent in a line of patent actions by the research organisation. In April last year, Microsoft, Fujitsu, Asus and HP all agreed to settle with the organisation over alleged infringements.

In a statement provided to ZDNet Australia, CSIRO refused to speculate on the amount of money it could receive in damages from the US carriers, saying that it would depend on the evidence presented in court.

The statement said that the lawsuits were part of the CSIRO's strategy "to license its WLAN technology and to use the proceeds to fund substantial levels of additional scientific research for the benefit of the people of Australia and the world". The organisation refused to speculate on any further potential lawsuits.

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